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Kennicott Bible (Bodleian Library MS Kennicott 1)

by: Moses Ibn Zabara (scribe) and Joseph ibn Hayyim (illustrator)

Publication date: 1476

Usage: Public Domain Mark 1.0

Topics: Bible, Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, Masoretic Text

Collection: folkscanomy_religion_bible; folkscanomy_religion; folkscanomy; additional_collections

Language: Hebrew

Item Size: 1.5G

The Kennicott Bible, a complete, lavishly decorated and illuminated Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) with vocalization and masoretic notes (La Coruña, 1476).

Contents:

Genesis (preceded by the grammar of biblical Hebrew Sefer Mikhlol on carpet pages)
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy (followed by carpet pages with illustrations of Temple items and geometric patterns)
Joshua
Judges
Samuel (2 Samuel)
Kings (2 Kings)
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) followed by carpet pages with geometric patterns
Chronicles (2 Chronicles) followed by a carpet page with geometric patterns
Psalms
Proverbs
Job
Ruth
Song of Songs
Ecclesiastes
Lamentations
Esther
Daniel
Ezra (Nehemiah) followed by a lexical-grammatical treatise on carpet pages

History: The artwork in the earlier Cervera Bible (1300) served as the direct model and inspiration for the decorations in this one. Both Bibles were produced in northern (Christian) Spain, and their artwork contains imagery of creatures and humans that is absent in other Jewish manuscripts from the Iberian peninsula (which typically contain only the kind of geometric patterns that are typical of Muslim art).

Source: Bodleian Library MS. Kennicott 1 (catalogue description). The National Library of Israel catalogue item is here.

More about the manuscript:

"The Kennicott Bible" (short introductory video)
Gary A. Rendsburg, "The Greatest Bible Ever Written" (hour-long lecture with visual examples)